Nov

20

Following the Equator

November 20, 2025 |

Following the Equator has a good chapter on thugism and thugee is still part of culture i've found.

Thugee became known to the British authorities in India about 1810, but its wide prevalence was not suspected; it was not regarded as a serious matter, and no systematic measures were taken for its suppression until about 1830. About that time Major Sleeman captured Eugene Sue's Thug-chief, "Feringhea," and got him to turn King's evidence. The revelations were so stupefying that Sleeman was not able to believe them. Sleeman thought he knew every criminal within his jurisdiction, and that the worst of them were merely thieves ; but Feringhea told him that he was in reality living in the midst of a swarm of professional murderers ; that they had been all about him for many years, and that they buried their dead close by. These seemed insane tales; but Feringhea said come and see — and he took him to a grave and dug up a hundred bodies, and told him all the circumstances of the killings, and named the Thugs who had done the work. It was a staggering business.

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